NIXON SIGNS BILL ON ARMS ACCORD

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30— President Nixon today signed the Congressional resolution ap proving a five‐year freeze at the present levels of most Unit ed States and Soviet offensive nuclear weapons.

As he signed the Congres sional resolution, passed by the House of Representatives in August and the Senate just over two weeks ago, President Nixon said that the interim agreement “is not a treaty which ends a war.”

“This is not an agreement which guarantees that. there will be no war,” he said. “But what this is, is the beginning of a process that is enormous ly important, that will limit now and, we hope, later re duce the burden of arms and thereby reduce the danger of war,”

Known formally as the “in terim agreement on certain measures with respect to the limitation of strategic offen sive arms,” the accord was ne gotiated by Mr. Nixon in Mos cow last May along with a treaty on the limitation of de fensive antiballistic missile systems.

Although Congressional sanction for the interim agree ment was not required, the President made a point of seek ing a joint resolution approving it and, in effect, granting him the mandate to pursue negotia tions with the Soviet Union for a full‐fledged treaty on lim iting strategic offensive arms.

This second phase in nuclear negotiations with the Russians is expected to open in Geneva late in November and to last several years. The interim agreement was designed to establish a strategic power bal ante between the United States and the Soviet Union during the forthcoming negotiations.

Mr. Nixon—who signed the resolution in the presence of Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders as well as Secretary of State William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger, the President's security adviser —is expected to sign the treaty limiting defensive weapons next week.

Although the Senate in Au gust ratified the treaty limiting each side to two defensive missile sites, the President with held his signature pending the passage of the Congressional resolution on the interim agree ment on offensive weapons.

Under the provisions of the two documents signed in Mos cow on May 26 by Mr. Nixon and Leonid I. Brezhnev, the Communist party leader, both pacts are to enter into force through a simultaneous ex change of instruments of ratifi cation for the defensive treaty and notices of acceptance for the interim agreement.

Gromyko to Visit

White House sources indi cated that Mr. Nixon planned to take advantage of the visit here on Monday by the Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei A. Gromyko to hold a ceremonial exchange of ratification docu ments for the two pacts.

Mr. Gromyko, who is to be President Nixon's guest at a White House dinner on Mon day, is to exchange the docu ments with Secretary Rogers.

The interim agreement, which declares that the two Govern ments believe that it will “con tribute to the creation of more favorable conditions for active negotiations on limiting strate gic arms,” commits the United States and the Soviet Union to refrain from starting, construc tion of new fixed launchers for land‐based intercontinental bal listic missiles after July 1, 1972.

An accompanying protocol also specifies that during the life of the interim agreement, the United States will be limit ed to no more that 710 ballistic missile launchers on submarines and to a maximum of 44 mod ern ballistic‐missiles subma rines.

The Soviet Union is allowed to have up to 950 launchers and 62 ballistic‐missile subma rines.

ICBM Totals Frozen

Under the five‐year freeze, the United States is to main tain its 1,054 intercontinental ballistic missiles and the Soviet Union its 1,618 missiles.

The numerical edge granted the Soviet Union both in sub marines and land‐based mis siles results from the United States superiority in warheads, chiefly multiple warheads known as MIRV, for multiple independently targeted re entry vehicle.

The Russians are not be lieved to have developed so far operational MIRV warheads. At the time the Moscow accords were signed in May, the United States had a total of 5,700 warheads and the Russians 2,500.

As passed by the Senate, alter a month of debate, the resolution approving the in terim agreement provides that there must be equality in the number of weapons under any future Soviet‐American treaty on offensive strategic arms.

This requirement resulted from an amendment proposed by Senator Henry M. Jackson, Democrat of Washington.

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A version of this archives appears in print on October 1, 1972, on Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: NIXON SIGNS BILL ON ARMS ACCORD. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe